European Championships, MEN Arena, Manchester:
Dates: 14-18 April Coverage: Reports and results on BBC website

Olver and Clark first teamed up in the Malaysian Open in January

The European Badminton Championships begin in Manchester on Wednesday with Anthony Clark set for an early test.

Clark, who won the mixed doubles title with Donna Kellogg in 2008, teams up with Heather Olver and the pair could face the second seeds on day two.

The duo beat the Polish pair of Robert Mateusiak and Nadiezda Kostiuczyk in their first match together in the first round of the Malaysian Open in January.

The winners could face Nathan Robertson and Jenny Wallwork in the last eight.

The English pair are currently ranked 16 in the world after playing in just nine tournaments together since Wallwork joined Robertson in the wake of Gail Emms' retirement.

Badminton England chief executive Adrian Christy is confident of home success at the MEN Arena and believes the future is bright for the sport in this country.

"We go into the European Championships with a pretty decent draw and I'm certainly expecting some of our players to produce some medal winning performances," Christy said.

"I think we have some really special talent. Obviously Robertson and Clark we believe can medal in 2012 and Chris Adcock and Gabby White are fantastic young talents - silver medallists at the junior world championships two years ago."

Robertson and Wallwork begin their European Championships campaign against Joe Morgan and Kerry Ann Sheppard of Wales.

Clark will be confident of success against Mateusiak and Kostiuczyk, having landed the gold medal with victory over them in the final in Denmark two years ago when in partnership with Kellogg.

I think we have some really special talent. Obviously Robertson and Clark we believe can medal in 2012 and Chris Adcock and Gabby White are fantastic young talents Badminton England's Adrian Christy

Clark and Robertson team up in the men's doubles and have avoided top seeds Mathias Boe and Carsten Mogensen in their half of the draw.

The home duo start against France's Laurent Constantin and Sebastien Vincent with the prospect of an all-English challenge against Peter Mills and Marcus Ellis in the second round.

There is also the threat of defending champions Lars Paaske and Jonas Rasmussen in the same half of the draw.

In the men's singles, Scotland's Kieran Merrilees has the unenviable task of facing top seed and four-times champion Peter Gade in round two, the Dane handed a bye in the opening round.

England's two seeds, Rajiv Ouseph and Carl Baxter, have both been given opening byes, with Ouseph facing a second-round clash against Austrian Michael Lahnsteiner and the prospect of Poland's 2008 bronze medallist Przemyslaw Wacha in the last 16.

Eighth seed Baxter has the best of the draw of the English players and could expect to surge right through to the last eight and a likely clash with Gade.

Scotland's Commonwealth bronze medallist Susan Egelstaff could face All England champion Tine Rasmussen in the quarter-finals of the women's singles competition.

The European Championships mark the start of a busy year for Britain's badminton players as they build towards the London Olympics in 2012.

The tournament is followed by the World Championships in Paris in August and then the Commonwealth Games and Christy is confident of success.

"We'll be sending the strongest possible team to the Commonwealth Games. We treat the Games very seriously - it's not a training event, it's not a benchmark event for us, it's one of our peak events this year.

"Even though we have players who are learning their trade we still believe they are capable of delivering performances, so we have fairly high medal expectations for the Commonwealth Games.

"If they come back with that then I think they would have achieved magnificently well and I think that gives them the springboard and appetite for success in London."

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